Git hands-on session with Github Desktop

Working on your own

Create a repo

1. Go to GitHub and login
2. Follow this tutorial to create a repo

Clone a repo to work locally

1. Install GitHub Desktop
2. Configure git
3. Follow this tutorial to clone your repo

Make a commit

1. Open your favourite text editor
2. Update the README.md
3. Commit your changes

Make a commit

Push your changes to backup your work

click Sync

Go to your repo on GitHub to verify

Create logical commits

1. Make 2 unrelated changes to your README.md locally
2. Create one commit for each change.
3. Do not push (yet)

Create logical commits

Create logical commits

Create a conflict

Update your README.md on GitHub,
on a line you also edited locally

Conflict!

Try to push your local changes

Keep calm and resolve conflict

1. Open README.md in text editor:

   <<<<<<< HEAD
   A simple analysis to visualize my favourite fruit colour.
   =======
   A simple analysis to discover my favourite fruit color.
   >>>>>>> origin/master

2. Choose what you want to keep:

   A simple analysis to discover my favourite fruit colour.

3. Commit and sync

Add a file

1. Add a fruits.csv file in a /data directory
2. Link to this file in the README.md

Add a file

Undo or adapt last commit

View history

Create a branch to experiment

1. Create a branch
2. Add an analysis file in a /src directory
3. Commit
4. Switch between branches

Create a branch to experiment

Create a branch to experiment

Create a pull request to include your work

TODO: adapt, as we do this ONLINE instead

Review your pull request

Review your pull request

1. Review
2. If OK, merge pull request
3. Delete branch

Exclude files

• in any programming language, some files are derivatives
• sensitive information (passwords,…)
• a folder with large data files that should not be in the history (and backuped elsewhere!)
• a temp/ folder for just garbage you create/…

.gitignore to the rescue!

Exclude files

Exclude files

Working together

Teaming up

• Team up with two or three persons
• Let one person invite the others, provide them with read/write access as explained in this tutorial

Invite collaborators

Invite collaborators

Collaboration: issues

• Raise an issue online
• Provide issues with an appropriate label
• Assign your colleague to the issue

Collaboration: online adaptations

• Make an adaptation to an online file
• Propose a pull request and assign your collaborator
• Merge the adaptation to the master branch

Collaboration: local adaptations

Working local - merging online

• As collaborator, clone the other repository to your local computer
• Create a new branch with a different name
• Adapt the content of a file
• commit your adaptation
• push your branch to the remote repository
• Go to GitHub and make a pull request
• Revise the work and merge online when appropriate
• Update your local work
• Check if all adaptations are represented in your local files

Tip: All functionalities are available in the previous sections

Release

Once you are satisfied with the status of your analysis, it makes sense to create a release:

• For publications (DOI)
• For code/software development versions
• For course notes

Follow this tutorial to create a release.

Some more advice:

• Commit often, make small commits
• Don’t mix changes in 1 commit
• Think about your commit messages
• Keep your code clean, avoid huge one-liners
• Use branches (!)
• Don’t keep long-lived branches (form of technical debt)

There’s no such thing, as a free lunch…

Information combined at INBO Tutorials website.
You’re welcome to provide issues, pull requests,…